Gone by Leona Deakin

 Welcome to Day 10 of the Blogtour for Leona Deakin's Gone.

This certainly had an interesting premise - not just your average 'missing persons' case, the victims here leave only one clue behind, a birthday card that reads "YOUR GIFT IS THE GAME. DARE TO PLAY?" and "HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY"

Brought in to investigate the disappearances are Psychologist and Private Detective Dr. Augusta Bloom and her colleague Marcus Jameson (ex MI6). As they get deeper into the mystery and more people go missing it quickly becomes clear that maybe these people aren't under threat, possibly they ARE the Threat. The waters here are very muddy and I did change my mind several times as to what was actually going on.

As for the lead characters, Bloom and Jameson, they worked well together, feeling like a comfy fit. I would definitely like to spend more story time with them and that's not always something you get from these kind of stories. They each bring their own skill sets to the table and what they have complements each other.

I enjoyed this a lot, twisty crime/mystery fiction is 'my thing' and even though it got a bit daft towards the end that didn't spoil what was a gripping read.

Recommended 3.5/5*

Thanks, as always, to Anne Cater for inviting me onto this tour and please, if you get the chance, have a look at the blog posts by the other reviewers on this tour.

The Vagabond King by Jodie Bond

Welcome to Day 3 of the The Vagabond King Blogtour.

Well, this was a nice surprise. So many times in fantasy fiction the hero is a turnip farmer or somesuch who turns out to be the prophesied king. In this, Book 1 of Jodie Bond's trilogy we have a Prince who's land is attacked and on escaping his life takes a definite downward turn.

As the titular Vagabond King though and with the help of a witch, a rebel soldier and a woman touched/cursed by a God he plans to return and take what is his. And that, my friends, is just the bare bones of this gritty, bloody, sometimes downright nasty (but oh so wonderful) book.

The people here are ruled by three Gods (of Air, Earth and Water) and, as you would expect, they are Gods of the meddlesome variety. It is a world where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer but maybe there's a change in the air. If anything I would have liked a little more backstory for some of the characters as our motley band all have 'issues' and 'stuff to overcome' but that may come with later volumes

The world building here is really good quality and it feels very much like the rich heritage and myths of the author's native Wales shines through (which is another pleasant change to the norm).

Highly recommended 4/5* (I'm saving the extra star for the later books)

Thanks as always to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the tour for this book, Parthian for supplying the review copy and please, if you get the chance, have a look at the other blog posts on the tour